1. Technical Field
The disclosure relates to an image processing apparatus, an image processing method, and a computer-readable recording medium, for extracting a representative image from an image group obtained by imaging a lumen of a living body.
2. Related Art
A technique has been known in which a group of a series of images (hereinafter, also referred to as intraluminal image group) is obtained by imaging a lumen of a living body in chronological order using a medical observation apparatus such as an endoscope or a capsule endoscope, and an image showing a region of interest such as an abnormal region is extracted as a representative image from the group of a series of images. A user can observe the representative image extracted from the image group, so that a burden during detailed observation of a large number of images is reduced, and diagnosis is made accurately and efficiently.
For example, JP 2011-24727 A discloses an image processing apparatus in which regions of interest are detected from an intraluminal image group obtained in chronological order, the detected regions of interest are classified, based on the features thereof, into identical groups of regions of interest being chronologically adjacent and having similar features, a representative region of each group is selected from the regions of interest classified in the each group, based on an average value of the features and an image including the selected representative region is output as a representative image.